Well, I mean, you absolutely can make a viral video but you cant make it a viral video.

The other day, I threw out a hypothesis that I could turn a simple video into a viral video by simply asking my readers and the videos viewers to Digg, Stumble, Reddit, Tweet, Facebook, email, and blog the video. Seems simple enough, right?

Turns out, asking your readers and viewers to do this stuff does have an effect: the video ended up getting about 5 times as many views as most of my other videos. The problem was, that still ended up being only 150 views, far less than the 5,000 or whatever that I wanted.

(As a side note  yes, I realize 5,000 views does not constitute a viral video. However, for me, that would have blown my mind.)

So, whats the moral of the story?

I think I proved my point that you get a lot further by telling your readers and viewers what you want from them as opposed to beating around the bush. However, as has been stated many times before, you cant make a video become viral, it just sort of has to happen.

Over my time running The New Business Blog, Ive given a lot of advice on how to make more money online. (While Im no Yaro Starak or John Chow, Id like to think I have been successful enough to be taken as a reputable source.)

Without a doubt, the single most important piece of advice Ive given is to straight up TELL your visitors what you want from them. Dont ask. Tell!

So, on that note, Ive decided to do a little experiment. I want to see if I can make a simple, yet stupid video go viral, simply by me TELLING everyone thats what I want them to help me do.

The video is nothing more than me TELLING everyone who views it that I want their help in making the video go viral. Now that youve viewed it, help me out by embedding the video in your blog, posting it on Twitter and Facebook, voting for it on Digg and Reddit, Stumbling it, and emailing it out to your friends and family.

Think if it as taking part in a 21st century social experiment. Look at you, you little groundbreaker!

Back to the moral of the story – the reason you tell as opposed to ask is simple  you can never assume that you have been clear enough with your potential customers. If you ask, you leave room for interpretation. If you tell, room for interpretation is gone.

Of the two, which one do you think is more likely to get you a sale? The first one, where Im asking if youd like to learn more while not giving you clear direction on what to do next, or the one where I tell you exactly what to do and whats going to happen after you do it?

Sure, the second one might come off as a little bit pushy, but since most buyers have to be coaxed and told what to do, youre probably doing them (and your bank account) a favor by narrowing down their options.

Ok, so, again, go back up to that video, and share it with every person under the sun in every way you know how. I want to get the video up to 50,000 hits, so make sure you do your part!

(How awesome is it going to be if I don’t fall completely flat on my face and this actually works?!?)

What are your thoughts on this post? Do you agree? Think Im a nut? Leave your comment below!

I’ve been experimenting with Twitter over the past few months, and have come to find that if you know what you’re doing, it can be a fantastic way to get tons of targeted traffic to your websites.

Obviously, the key phrase from what I just wrote is “if you know what you’re doing.” During the first month I used Twitter, I wasted countless hours and got very little traffic to my websites. It was an incredibly frustrating situation.

Then, I came up with the following three Twitter rules, which I’ve since shared in previous posts:

These rules helped to increase my Twitter traffic exponentially, which has helped to bump up my Adsense, affiliate and marketing revenue. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with the above rules.

However, I still felt like I could get more out of Twitter, so I started to experiment the actual words in my Tweets. After playing around for the past month or so, I’ve come up with the following headlines as the most likely to get your links clicked:

Who else…

How to…

Top (insert number here)…

Who else tends to promote a sense of community, and also can promote you as an authority source. For example, I recently promoted a link to Life Lock on one of my Twitter accounts using the Tweet: “Who else wants to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft?”

In one day I had over 100 clicks, which is much better than the 10 clicks I got from using the “Visit Life Lock to learn about staying safe from identity theft.”

Obviously, everyone would like to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, but by posing the question using a “who else,” I was able to get a ton more clicks.

How to is great because you’re basically telling anyone reading your Tweet, “If you have this problem, I can solve it.” This promotes you as an authority, and will get almost anyone looking for your solution to click on your link.

Top (insert number) is great because everybody loves lists. Really, it’s true.

So, if you’re interested in generating more traffic from Twitter, follow the three rules I posted previously, and follow my headline advice. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how much your traffic increases.

Invariably, I had to explain each referenced subtopic as well, which left both my friend and me frustrated and out of breath. At this point, my friend, who was tired of hearing me go on and on, said, Just give me your sites elevator speech.

An elevator speech is a quick 30 to 60 second summary of what it is your site or business is about. As youve already guessed, an elevator speech is what you would say to someone if you were riding an elevator with them.

Obviously, youre going to be talking in very high level terms here, so youll want to focus on the broad aspects of what your site or business does. If you start getting down into nitty-gritty of your site, youll very quickly find that your 30 second speech has turned into a three minute ramble.

After taking a minute to think, I came up with the following elevator speech for this site:

The New Business Blog is a website and resource for anyone interested in starting their own business, in particular, an internet based business. In my writings I cover basic entrepreneurial topics like how to legally start a business, but mostly focus on topics that are a little more relevant to online marketers, like how to get more targeted visitors to their websites, or how to convert that traffic into revenue for their business.

Todays post is the second in a three post series aimed at showing you how to get more out of Twitter with far less effort. Click the following link to read the first post, which was about Tweeting in blocks.

Now that you know about Tweeting in blocks and why its guaranteed to increase your visibility, you need to know how to structure these blocks so that your followers are more likely to click on your links and come to your blog or affiliate site.

TIP #2  SEND 2 NON-LINK TWEETS FOR EVERY LINKED TWEET

When sending out your Tweets, you cant include a link to your site or affiliate offer every single time. If you do this, youll either be flagged as a spammer or your followers will simply learn to tune you out.

What Ive found to be effective is to send out one Tweet that includes a link to one of my sites or affiliate offers for every two Tweets I send out that are nothing but words. You can increase your conversions further by taking this a step further and set up your followers with your worded Tweets. Heres an example:

Tweet 1: I feel like Ive been on Twitter all day!

Tweet 2: Whats your best Twitter tip in 140 characters or less?

Tweet 3: How to quickly and easily add 100s of followers on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/nuwwuc

By following this pattern, not only will you get lots of screen time in front of your followers, but, more importantly, youll gain credibility. At the very least you wont come across as a spammer, but if you play your cards right, youll come across as a trusted source who posts relevant content and links, which is critical in improve your conversions.

One of the main reasons I’ve been able to quickly and continuously grow traffic to my websites – both my blogs and my affiliate sites – is I’ve become a much better and efficient Twitter user. It took a lot of time and experimenting, but I’ve come up with three very important tips to help you get more traffic to your websites from Twitter.

Over the next three days, you will be able to read about each of the tips, implement the them, and start to see immediate results!

TIP #1 – TWEET IN BLOCKS OF 10 to 12

As I’m sure you’re well aware, you’re not the only person your Twitter followers are following. Unfortunately, this means you have to compete for attention with likely thousands – if not tens of thousands – of other people at any given moment.

I’ve found the easiest way to ensure you grab your followers’ attention is to send out Tweets in blocks of 10 to 12, spacing each Tweet roughly 45 seconds to 1 minute apart.

By sending out this block of Tweets, you’re pretty much guaranteed to take up some real estate on your follower’s Twitter feed, however, because you’ve given adequate time between each of your Tweets, you’re not being obnoxious about it.